Monday Photo Shoot: Isn't That Special!

Let's get right to it:

New Monday Shoot #21: show us something that can be considered "special." It can be a special occasion such as a birthday or anniversary, a special outfit you only wear to parties or job interviews, a special soap you can only get at that store across town, or a special meal you make for your kids when they're sick (or bring home a great report card). Celebrate the specialness with a photo or two! And yes, you can dip into your archives for this one, and show us something special that happened weeks, months or years ago.

Today is my 29th wedding anniversary, but I have no photos to show you yet in relation to that. It doesn't matter, because yesterday, Sunday, May 18th, was the birthday of a friend of mine:

It's Eva! My oldest friend (literally, but not in terms of years known) just turned 103 years old. My friend Kevin and I spent two hours visiting her today. Her room was filled with flowers and balloons and other tokens of affection, but none of her relatives were there yet. Most of them live in California or Seattle, and probably aren't coming down this year. Even some of the Tucson relatives, she told us, are in Mexico (perhaps she meant New Mexico) at a soccer tournament instead.

At 103, Eva can still walk, as long as it's not too far, and still carry on an intelligent conversation. In fact, she is ornery enough to fight for her own rights and the rights of others if she thinks people are being neglected or mistreated. Her vision is not so good, but she can still read large print, and she enjoys watching baseball and basketball on tv. She reports that the nurses where she is living now like the effect she has on her fellow residents, cheering them up and calming them down with her lively chatter. Hooray for Eva! I wish I were related to her; I'd love to have her genes. But I'll settle for my Dad's - he's as active at 85 as most folks are at 65, and that's nothing to sneeze at!

Your turn! Show us that special something, that special person, that special time, that special anything. As always, you have until Sunday night, when I'll post a special roundup of your entries. Be sure to leave a link back here in your journal or blog entry, and a link to your entry in the comments thread below. Thanks, and have fun, celebrating your own special example of specialness!

Karen

Monday Photo Shoot Results: The Unrelated

Last week for the Monday Photo Shoot, I asked to see a photo of someone you care about, even though the person is unrelated to you. The results were sparse but interesting:

Laura shows us her daughter's best friend.

Carly pictures Paula Poundstone.

Kiva introduces us to her friend Wendy, Joe's wife.

Marsha shows off some of her J-Land friends.

And I'm showing you my friend Eva again. I don't know if you can tell, but this is a different shot from the one I posted last week. She asked me today how many pictures I have of her. I said four or five. And I chickened out on asking to photograph her again.

New MPS topic coming right up! And by the way, for those who wonder, yes, I accept late entries to these things. But more people will probably look at your blog if you post your entry on time!

Karen

New Monday Photo Shoot #13: Non-Relatives

Let's move on to a photograph subject I seldom tackle myself: people.

New Monday Photo Shoot #13: Photograph someone you're not related to, who nevertheless matters to you.

The topic comes from a photo I took earlier today:


This is Eva. She is 102 years old. If she makes it to mid-May, she'll be 103. I met her on her birthday about four years ago. It was the day she turned 98 or 99. I forget which. She turned up at St. Michael's, having taken the bus there. Several people volunteered to pick her up and take her home after that, but I was the one who ended up with this pleasant duty, whenever she was up to it and not busy doing anything else.

Eva is a retired nurse. She's lived in a number of places, including Seattle and Alaska. She once traveled hundreds of miles by dogsled, while pregnant. Just today, she told me about a time while she was studying nursing, when she told off a Mother Superior for snooping in her dresser drawer. Eva won the encounter.

I hadn't seen Eva in several months, and had only gotten one call from her since we last met. Last weekend, Proscovia, the Master of Acolytes to whom I report when I serve as crucifer or torch, mentioned having visited her. Today after Easter Mass, I had an idea that it would be good to take Easter communion to Eva. As I was waiting to ask Father Smith for supplies with which to do this, my cell phone rang.

"Hello? Karen?"

I recognized Eva's voice immediately. Unfortunately, she couldn't hear my voice in reply. My Sprint phone has terrible reception at St. Michael's, and was in dire need of recharging. I tried repeatedly to call Eva back, but only got a busy signal.

So I went back into the Parish Center, waited for the tiniest of breaks in conversation between Father Smith and two parishioners, and said, "I need to take Easter communion to Eva--right now."


Bless him, he excused himself almost instantly from the conversation, and we went into the church for the communion supplies. He mentioned that he'd also visited her recently, but wasn't supposed to resume visiting the sick until he was well himself. (He's had the flu.) It wasn't until he mentioned Eva's room number that I found out she's in a nursing home at the moment. This is a woman who lived alone in an apartment until last year, and with her elderly, wheelchair-bound daughter since then.

So I went to see Eva, and she was glad to see me. Turns out she fell backwards, backing up too far. She's not walking at the moment, but they think she will walk again soon. Her eyesight is failing, her appetite's lousy and she pretty much feels that her useful life is over. And yet she's more on the ball than my mom was at 75, and still a joy to be around.

Your turn: take a picture or two of that special non-relative in your life, post it to your journal or blog, and tell us briefly who the person is. Then leave a link back here in your entry, and a link to your entry in the comments here. I'll be back in a week to introduce all these important folks!

Karen

P.S. I intended to write about Holy Week tonight, but two entries for tonight is enough! I'll get to it, probably tomorrow night.